Constructing the Self

Note:
I am a law student with an undergraduate degree in computer science. I am
not a psychology student. This essay is not a Ph.D. thesis. It was
in no way connected to my primary fields of study. It was written as a final
course paper for an elective. Please feel free to link to this essay, as several
people have done before, but if you do, please credit me properly for it.

Neon Genesis Evangelion is an animated Japanese television series, which
aired between 1995 and 1996. A work deep in philosophical meaning and complex
thoughts on human psychology, Evangelion has provided a source of investigation
and discussion for both anime fans and serious scholars. In the writing below, I
attempt to provide an analytically-oriented viewpoint on the series, in order to
understand the psychology behind the series as well as to find its place in the
context of both its director and its nation of origin.

It also deals with another series by the same director, Kareshi Kanojo no
Jijo, but based on the Google searches which lead to this page, no one seems
really interested in that...

This paper was written during the spring semester of 2001, for a course on
Japanese Animation taught by Professor Susan Napier. Read it. Learn it. Don't
laugh.

View the entire paper on one pageI've recently
reorganized this essay into several pages so that it isn't so long and imposing;
the original one-page format is available at the above link. The section
subtitles were not part of the original essay.

Constructing the Self

Views of Identity in Neon Genesis Evangelion and Kareshi Kanojo no Jijo

Charles Duan
Japanese Literature 135
May 1, 2001

Anno Hideaki is a paradoxical character. In 1994 he began directing an anime
series which would prove to become a groundbreaking masterwork in the medium,
the psychological and philosophical drama Neon Genesis Evangelion. Considered by
many to be one of the greatest series ever created, Evangelion explores the
darker sides of the human psyche and even draws into question fundamental ideas
of existence. Yet within five years of this complex creation he changed gears
completely, beginning work on an upbeat high-school shojo romantic comedy
series, Kareshi Kanojo no Jijo (His and Her Circumstances, abbreviated Kare
Kano). Differing in nearly every way from his previous animated work,
Anno created a series about two perfect high school students, as opposed to the
three mentally disturbed fourteen-year-olds from Evangelion, who live a simple
normal life, not having to battle mind-invading monsters bent on destroying the
world. One immediately wonders if there is even remotely any connection between
the two, or if Anno simply had no idea what he was doing.

It is true that it is no easy task to resolve common themes between these two
shows, which seem on so many levels to be completely different. Yet a deeper
consideration of the themes proves much more revealing with regard to the common
underlying philosophical structures beneath them. When we consider these themes,
especially those concerning the nature of mankind and his relation to society,
we can understand how Anno was able to create consistent meaning between two
radically different series. And by considering these two series in the context
of humanist psychology, with which Anno was probably familiar, we can illuminate
these themes so that we may see them more clearly.

To begin, consider this simple premise: there exist two forms of identity of
self, the "real" identity which is inherently present in the self, and the
"constructed" identity which is made from "non-natural" human observations and
interpretations of a person made by both that person and by others. This should
not be too hard to understand; if I want to write poetry but everyone tells me
that I am good at mathematics, then my real identity wants me to be a poet while
my constructed identity dictates that I should be a mathematician. This idea of
the real versus constructed identity is a simple corollary to Lacan's realms of
the Real and the Symbolic. I will explain these two concepts in more detail
later, but for now the crucial difference between the Real and the Symbolic can
be summarized, according to Lacan, in the concept of Lack: whereas there is no
lack in the realm of the Real (i.e. everything you want is present), the
Symbolic is characterized by lack, since symbols are only necessary when there
is a lack of the actual (for example, if I use the word "apple" it is because I
lack a physical apple to present).[1] And these concepts of Real and Symbolic
can translate into the ideas of identity as Real and Constructed: the real
identity is created from the real person, where there is no lack of
understanding of the self; the constructed identity is built up out of symbolic
representations of that person.

Anno takes this premise of the real and constructed identities and looks at
which of these two identities we humans choose to follow, investigates why we
choose to follow that identity, and then argues for what he believes we should
follow. In both Kare Kano and Evangelion, Anno's common theme can be shown to be
his study of the factors which cause the characters of those series to choose to
live through the constructed self rather than the real one, and the ways in
which they finally break free of these restrictive factors. He does so by
exploring the characters' self-discovery of these restricting factors, hoping
that we, as the audience, may discover the same factors in ourselves and free
ourselves in the same ways.

In this paper, I will look at those factors restricting the real identity
that Anno identifies, in the logical sequence of deconstruction of such factors
presented by him. It is probably noteworthy, though, that such a progression is
much more cleanly and logically done in Evangelion; after all, Anno was
restricted himself by having to follow a prewritten manga when directing Kare
Kano. In order to identify the degree to which Kare Kano reflected Anno's own
thoughts, I made my own comparisons of the anime and manga; these comparisons
have revealed that Anno overwhelmingly followed the direction of the original
work, but still expanded on certain areas in greater depth, areas which I will
point out throughout the course of this paper. Nevertheless, highly similar
themes of human identity crop up in both series, indicating that such a study of
Anno's psychological analysis of his characters in either series is indeed valid
and worthwhile.